


Hide and Seek

by Tieleen



Category: Vampire Diaries (TV)
Genre: Alternate Canon, Alternate Universe
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2011-12-09
Updated: 2011-12-09
Packaged: 2017-10-27 03:44:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,637
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/291270
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Tieleen/pseuds/Tieleen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three universes where Damon was the one who met Elena first.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hide and Seek

**Author's Note:**

> For a prompt at comment_fic: _The Vampire Diaries, Damon +/ Elena, Five AUs in which Damon met Elena first, and one in which they never met at all_. I managed three.
> 
> Rated M to be on the safe side, but there's nothing here you wouldn't see on the show itself.
> 
> Cosmic beta read part of this awesomely and without provocation, gave me a title, bore patiently with me casting aspersions upon her and doing battle for my commas, and was generally lovely. Sascha gave me titles that traumatized me, brainstormed excellent AU ideas (which sadly I mostly failed to use), and was equally lovely but with a dash of evil, as is her way. Seven_ace beta read the other part, assured me it was actually coherent, and was that special brand of lovely where you help complete strangers out of nothing but the kindness of your heart. Many thanks to them all.

**1\. The Woods**

 _Emily: You've transitioned.  
Stefan: You'd have rather found me dead._

They're not supposed to be out here, really. None of them are allowed to go so far into the woods. But this is Mystic Falls -- everybody knows it's safe here. Nothing ever happens in Mystic Falls.

They're playing Hide and Seek, but Bonnie's gone off running in the opposite direction, and Elena can hear her crashing through the undergrowth and yelling Caroline's name. Matt went the same way too, but Bonnie's right to go after Caroline first; Caroline doesn't do so well with keeping still and quiet.

Elena's taking this opportunity to walk around, as quiet as she can be. It'll take a while before Bonnie makes her way back.

The man is quiet, too. She almost stumbles and falls right on top of him when he raises his head to look at her.

Elena almost screams but chokes it down. She doesn't know why. Maybe because she really, really wants to win at Hide and Seek. Maybe because the man is ghost-pale under the dirt on his face, and his eyes are very large. He looks like he's scared of her.

He says, "Katherine?" his voice sounds... weird. It sounds like his eyes look, like he's afraid and sort of hopeful and very confused. He says, "You look -- young?"

Elena swallows and looks back to where, just out of sight, Matt is laughing breathlessly and Bonnie is yelling something, triumphant. She thinks about running away, but instead she gathers up all the good manners she's been taught and says, "I'm Elena Gilbert. How are you?"

"Gilbert," the man says. He laughs a little, like he isn't sure about something.

Elena crouches down to look at him. She should be scared; little girls in the woods should be scared of strange men. But she can hear her friends, just a little way off, and these are her woods, and this strange man is not scary at all.

She says, "are you okay?" Up close like this, some of the dirt on his face is brown-red.

"Okay?" he says. He laughs again. "I'm okay. Too many rabbits."

Elena frowns, confused, but before she can ask, he says, "are you lost?"

"No," she says, even more confused. Can't he hear Tyler yelling about how Bonnie's cheating and she hasn't got him at all? "Are you?"

More laughter. "A little," he says. "I'm a little lost, Elena Gilbert."

"Oh," she says. "I -- we could help you get back?"

"Lost some people here," he says, like she hasn't said anything. "It's a bad place for losing people, Mystic Falls."

"Oh," Elena says again. She wonders if maybe he needs help looking for them. But she's a little scared now, after all, somehow, of the way his eyes don't look like they're looking at her at all.

It's a relief to hear Bonnie calling her name, bodies running towards her, scattering fallen twigs and dry leaves. She looks back to see them bearing down on her, laughing and shoving each other as they run. When she looks back, the man is gone.

 

 **2\. The Bennets**

 _Stefan: Why would Emily... Why would she do this for you?  
Damon: Because she knew they were gonna come for her, too. And she made me promise that her lineage would survive._

Fire drills always make it look easy: just follow procedure, stay calm, trust the grown ups, it'll all be all right. But fire drills never prepared her for that awful smell, for the smoke already filling the hallway and the heat she's almost-not-quite sure she's imagining, for kids screaming and shoving and scared all around her and one look at Miss Rothgen's face telling Elena she can't trust her to lead them through this to safety at all.

The sprinklers aren't coming on and the nearest door to a stairway is locked and there's shoving all around them, and someone's screaming that the fire's already everywhere on the ground floor, that there's no way to go. They got separated from Caroline and she can't see Matt, but Elena's holding Bonnie's hand as hard as she can, both of them trying to shove towards the nearest staircase. Why isn't everyone moving?

Then a window down the hall breaks, and kids are screaming even louder, then more loudly still when someone shoves his way through and falls on the floor. He doesn't have a fireman's outfit or a hose or anything; nothing comes through the window after him. He stands up almost as soon as he's hit the floor, looking around, and when his eyes fall on Bonnie he makes this face like he's disgusted with all of them and starts shoving through.

"Do you know him?" Elena yells, and she isn't sure Bonnie can even hear her over the screaming and the shouted questions, but Bonnie tightens her grip on Elena's hand and shakes her head no.

Then the man is there, grabbing Bonnie's other arm and yelling something Elena can't hear.

Bonnie shakes her head a lot more emphatically. The man yells again. Bonnie grabs Elena's arm with her other hand, too. Elena's staring, speechless, when the man makes an even more disgusted face and grabs both their arms, somehow fighting a way for all of them towards the window.

The next thing she knows, she's standing on the ground outside, staring around her, Bonnie staring up at the window and looking as shocked as Elena feels. There's nothing but the vague impression of eyes staring into her, of someone saying, "Who the hell are you?"

Bonnie's mysterious knight in shining armour becomes school legend, even though nobody really knows what happened. And the next week, Bonnie's grandmother starts telling her stories -- crazy things about what she'll be able to do soon, how she'll be prepared and won't have to count on any old deals.

 

 **3\. The Beginning**

 _Elena: What makes you think I'm sad?  
Stefan: Well, we did meet in a graveyard._

"Hello, Elena," he says.

She makes an aborted sound, shock and fear and disbelief, trying to draw to a stop fast enough that she won't pitch forward into him. She doesn't make it; she was in a pretty big hurry there, and he's standing very, very close.

He puts a gentlemanly hand on her shoulder, helping her regain her balance. Her eyes are wide, her breath still coming in short, sharp pants. She smells like terror and the chase, all of Damon's favorite things.

Up close like that, the resemblance is really pretty amazing.

"W-who," she says, and she's already trying to stop her voice from wavering, already regaining her footing to try and pull away from him. He smiles at her. "Who are you?"

He lets the smile draw into a pout, gives her a wounded look. "You don't remember me?"

"I --" her eyes are searching, moving over his face. "I... I don't know -- you look..."

"And after I saved your life," Damon says, shaking his head at her. "I really should be very hurt right now. But I suppose you had other things on your mind that day."

Her mouth opens a little, those perfect lips forming a soundless word of realization. She turns her head to look back at the distance, somewhere beyond the trees where her parents’ tombstone stands, then realizes what she's done and whips it back around to stare at him. They covered quite a bit of ground in this little chase -- not that Damon wasn't holding back, but Elena Gilbert is clearly a born runner. He appreciates that in a girl.

"That's right," Damon says. "Got my clothes all wet, too, and let me tell you, river water really doesn't do anything good to your wardrobe. Wouldn't usually go out of my way, you understand, but I never could hold back from a pretty face." He waggles his eyebrows at her. For some reason, she looks like she's failing to find that reassuring.

"I don't remember you..." she says, voice whisper-soft. The fear in those eyes makes them completely unfamiliar, and he's glad for that; wouldn't want to get confused, after all. "...Do I?"

Damon smiles at her again. He raises one hand, the other still resting on her shoulder, see-sawing it in time to another eyebrow waggle. "Only a little bit. I guess I can forgive you, really. I did tell you to do that, after all."

"I don't understand," she says, her voice still faint. But he sees something in her eyes, something that surprises him -- behind the fear, she's finding her footing in there, too, something in her looking for the way to get away in more than just blind panic. He didn't expect that. This might be more fun than he thought.

"It's really very simple," Damon tells her. He smooths his hand down her arm, feels her shudder, draw in. "You, Elena Gilbert, are something extraordinary."

She's silent, watching, waiting for an opening.

"Or, well," he says, letting the smile turn into a smirk and shoving her shoulder very gently, so that she takes a stumbling step back but doesn't fall. "At the very least, you look like something extraordinary. And I'm about to have the original thing back in just a few months, but I'm sure she won't mind me having a little company while I wait."

She gasps sharply when he lays his hand on her throat, the hand on her shoulder tightening to hold her in place. The panic is higher than before, filling his lungs, coloring everything around them. It's intoxicating.

He'll miss that, really. Maybe he'll let her be afraid sometimes.

"Everything's going to be all right," Damon tells her. "Trust me." He feels his smile widen as his vision becomes clearer, tighter, like it always is around the compelling. "No, really."


End file.
